“二战”前和“二战”时期日军兵力规模考略

On the Size of Japanese Military Forces Before and During World War Ⅱ

作为“二战”中法西斯轴心国之一的日本,其军队近代化始于明治维新。最初日本军队规模和实力都相当弱小。但随后为适应对外侵略战争的需要而制订军备发展计划不断加强军事实力。经短暂的1920年代裁军,1930年代日本开始疯狂地对外侵略。“九一八”事变前后日本已经在筹划大规模的军备扩充。全面侵华战争中军队的巨大消耗迫使日本加强极权统治以补充军备。到1941年太平洋战争前夕,日本军事实力已经可以匹敌西方列强在远东的军力总和。随后日军在各个战场遭受巨大失败,到1944年底其战舰、飞机已损失绝大部分。1945年日本试图进行“本土决战”,至战败投降时仍维持着数量庞大的兵队,总兵力达到700多万人。

Japan, as one of the important fascist axis countries in World War II, began its modernization of army during the Meiji Reformation. Japan's military force was initially weak in size and strength. However, its army was continually strengthened by a sequence of military expansion plans to meet the needs of the foreign war of aggression. After a brief period of disarmament in the 1920s, Japan began a frenzied foreign aggression in the 1930s. It had been planning large-scale arms expansion before and after the "Incident of 18th of Sep". The huge depletion of the army in the total war with China forced Japan to strengthen its totalitarian rule to replenish armaments. By the eve of Pacific War, Japan's military power could rival the combined power of Western powers in the Far East. Then the Japanese troops suffered huge failures in various battlefields, and by the end of 1944 their warships and planes had been lost the vast majority. In 1945, Japan attempted a "domestic showdown", which remained a large number of troops, with a total strength of more than 7 million by the end of the war.